If you like something…

Author Notes:My family rents a house on the Florida panhandle every summer, and this year I found myself baking almost every day. (I made chocolate cake with ganache frosting, ChefJune's fig tart, my blueberry pie with lime zest.) This morning, our last morning, I found 2 pounds of strawberries untouched in the refrigerator, and decided to make a strawberry cake. I wanted to use the recent recipe from smitten kitchen, but didn't have some of the ingredients (like butter) and didn't have a mixer, and needed to make enough for 17 people, so while I was inspired by her recipe, I changed it enough that I don't know if she'd even want to be associated with it. It did smell like the best of summer when it came out of the oven, and was good both warm and at room temperature. I have no idea how well it keeps because it didn't last a day in this house. —drbabs

In another large bowl, mix together yogurt, half and half, oil and vanilla extract. Add eggs one at a time and whisk till thoroughly combined.

Stir dry ingredients into wet ingredients till just combined. The batter will be lumpy like muffin batter. That's OK. Pour it into the prepared pan and smooth the top. Place strawberries over the top, trying to put them close together so you can cram in lots of strawberries. Sprinkle the top with sugar.

Bake for about an hour till the edges are golden brown and a tester comes out free of cake batter. (This could take a while because the strawberries get jammy and soft. It took an hour and 10 minutes in our oven, but this is a vacation house so who knows how the oven is calibrated? Check frequently.)

I used this recipe as a guide to make my own since I didn't quite have all the ingredients. I only have a little less then 1/2 the amount of strawberries so I used banana in substitute for the rest of the strawberries then I used heavy whipping cream instead of half & half. & olive oil instead of vegetable oil. This works well because not only is olive oil healthier but its fruitier in flavor. & I sprinkled light brown sugar on top instead of white sugar. & baked for about half the time since I cut the recipe in half. Worked perfect & tasted great!

I'm so honored that you were inspired by my recipe. I love all your adaptations. I really did make this at a beach house and used what we had left after almost a week there. It's very forgiving, and I'm sure your version tasted delicious! Thanks for commenting.

Hi Fran, right there with you! I only have one kid, but still it's a lot shopping, planning, cooking, and oh yeah, clean up!My son is 16...he has to know how to prepare 7 full dinners before he goes off to college, we are almost there. He is excited about cooking, and loves the pleasure it gives others

Thanks. You don't know my family--they'll eat anything. But I felt OK about it--the cake base is a basic yogurt pound cake, and the strawberries were amazing, so I figured it would turn out OK and it really did!